Australian officials are cautioning that recovery from the unprecedented global technology outage that has paralysed multiple sectors could take several days.
Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths are among the entities still grappling with disruptions as authorities strive to resolve the crisis, described as the most extensive IT outage ever encountered.
The massive disruption was triggered by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which impacted computers running Microsoft Windows worldwide. The company has clarified that the issue was neither a hacking incident nor a cyberattack and has apologised while assuring that a fix is on the way.
Lots of blue at Sydney Airport (via @bengrubb):#Crowdstrike #Crowdstruck pic.twitter.com/r0BgXQ8YI1
— Michael Wyres (@mwyres) July 19, 2024
As of 9 a.m. today, Woolworths and Coles are operational but experiencing slow checkouts, with some terminals still down across various stores. Airports are also functioning, although Jetstar flights continue to be affected.
The Australian government convened an emergency meeting last night, where officials were briefed by CrowdStrike. Hamish Hansford, the deputy secretary of the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre, reassured Australians there was “no reason to panic” but indicated the fix could take days.
“Over the next hours and days, we hope that this incident will self-resolve as technical responses kick in,” Hansford said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged the public’s concern over the outage.
“My government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator,” he stated. “There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or triple zero services at this stage.”
Victoria Emergency reported that fire alarms were not automatically calling firefighters, urging the public to dial triple zero instead. The outage has affected numerous companies, including supermarkets, media outlets, financial service providers, and airports.
By midnight, some Australian airlines had reassured customers that their systems were operational again. However, airports across the country faced significant issues with check-in systems for several hours. Jetstar cancelled all flights in Australia and New Zealand until 2 a.m., but airlines are optimistic that normal operations will resume by Saturday.
Customers at major Coles and Woolworths stores were unable to use self-service checkouts, with only a few manned registers functioning. Woolworths reported that all but six stores were open and trading, albeit with fewer registers available, and thanked customers for their patience. A small number of online orders could not be fulfilled, the company added.
Commonwealth Bank (Commbank) announced that online banking customers were unable to make PayID payments, though ATMs and other online banking services remained functional. Businesses, both large and small, were unable to use Windows operating systems, as well as Microsoft 365 applications and Xero. The BBC reported that the London Stock Exchange systems were also down, highlighting the global reach of the outage. In the U.S., airlines United, American, Delta, and Allegiant were grounded.
Technology expert Trevor Long told 9News that personal use computers would not be impacted by the outage. Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator, Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, emphasised that there was no indication of a cyberattack. “I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon,” she said. “Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.”
“There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders,” McGuinness added.
CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company, is responsible for Falcon, an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform designed to monitor and respond to intrusions on computers it is installed on. The company is working diligently to rectify the issue and restore normalcy to affected systems.
CrowdStrike CEO, George Kurtz, apologised for the outage, on Friday saying the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”
“We know what the issue is” and are working to remediate it, Kurtz said on NBC’s Today Show.
